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DICTIONARY: Get the Meaning

Are you confused by the difference between lecithins and lectins? Can't tell your alkanes from your alkenes? Flip open this hefty Web dictionary from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The site offers the 1997 edition of the popular “Gold Book,” a compendium of the latest approved terms. The nearly 7000 definitions, crafted by expert committees of the IUPAC, run from alpha-addition reaction (a reaction in which two or three reactants combine to form a single product) to zygote (a fertilized egg).